Senior Finops Specialist

  • Mid-level, Long-term consulting assignment
  • Posted on 20 July 2022

Job Description

Organizational Context

Organizational Setting

The post is located in the IT Technical Division (ITTD), Information and Communication Technology Department (ITCD), Administration and Management Sector.

ITTD is responsible for ensuring the maintenance, development and secure operations of the Organization’s ICT platforms hosting all of WIPO’s internal and outward facing business systems.

In May 2018, WIPO adopted a “Cloud First” policy and established a Cloud Management Unit (CMU) to coordinate the cloud transition activities. Subsequently, the Cloud Transition Project was initiated. At present, the CMU is part of ITTD.

Purpose Statement

We are entering Phase III of the Project, which foresees the migration of further business applications and moving cross-cutting applications and services to the cloud.

To support this transition, a strengthened governance mechanism is proposed in the form of an internal Cloud Center of Competence in order to: (i) secure the provision of architectural competences and oversight for the migration of major business applications; (ii) drive effective development and operations (DevOps) practices, operations and platform management; (iii) manage financial aspects of the transition; and (iv) procure and start a Managed Services contract for cloud operations.

The incumbent will be responsible for reviewing, understanding, and forecasting consumption of IT/cloud services from the various business areas.

The incumbent will also work with other entities such as Budget & Finance, Information Security, Cloud Vendors, and ICTD, to drive transparency around IT costs and consumption. He/she will understand charging principles and publish detailed cost-of-service (COS) in order to optimize IT/cloud services costs and recommend cloud purchasing options.

Reporting Lines

The incumbent works under the supervision of the Chief Technology Officer.

Duties and Responsibilities

The incumbent will perform the following principal duties:

a. Develop in-depth knowledge of the existing IT/cloud architecture/in-house infrastructure and technology portfolio.

b. Build, maintain, and optimize dashboards to provide internal users with an analytical view of services data for cost-of-service and capacity planning.

c. Provide costing expertise, direction, and assistance to systems analysts, cloud architects and application teams.

d. Develop, document, and make recommendations and communicate plans for financial operations with cloud infrastructure, including analysis of cost reduction opportunities.

e. Work closely with developers, IT operations, business, and accounting staff to build and propose a cost-of-service chargeback model.

f. Work with business owners and accounting staff to resolve open billing service accounting/costing issues, identify processes improvements, and track progress to completion.

g. Provide IT/cloud financial details to Accounting and lines of business in order to complete reconciliation of IT service accounts.

h. Analyze the demand for IT/cloud services in order to generate forecast and capacity planning as well as provide information to the vendor management role to negotiate better pricing (e.g. low utilization, more optimal usage patterns or deployment options).

i. Conduct research on emerging cloud technologies in support of infrastructure demand management and cost-of-service pricing techniques, and recommend practices that will increase cost effectiveness.

j. Develop/maintain training material supporting the key concepts of public cloud billing, the IT/cloud service billing, and cross charging processes.

k. Perform other related duties as required.

Requirements

Education (Essential)

Advanced university degree in Computer Science or another Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics (STEM) discipline. A first-level university degree plus two years of relevant experience in addition to the years of experience requested below may be accepted in lieu of an advanced university degree.

AWS Solution Architect Certification: Associate.

Education (Desirable)

AWS Solution Architect Certification: Professional.

Experience (Essential)

Relevant working experience of seven years, of which at least three years in a similar role. Proficient use of reporting tools such as Tableau, Microsoft PowerBI or Quicksight.

Experience (Desirable)

Budget & Finance Management.

FinOps Certified Practitioner.

Data Visualisation.

Microsoft Azure experience/certification.

Language (Essential)

Excellent written and spoken knowledge of English.

Language (Desirable)

Knowledge of other UN official languages, particularly French.

Job Related Competencies (Essential)

Excellent analytical skills.

Excellent document production and presentation skills.

Familiarity with a broad range of technologies supplemented by in-depth knowledge in specific areas of relevance.

Excellent communication and interpersonal skills and ability to maintain effective partnerships and working relations in a multi-cultural environment with sensitivity and respect for diversity.

Job Related Competencies (Desirable)

Working experience in the context of an international organization.

Organizational Competencies

Communicating effectively.

Showing team spirit.

Demonstrating integrity.

Valuing diversity.

Producing results.

Showing service orientation.

Seeing the big picture.

Seeking change and innovation.

Developing yourself and others.

Information

Mobility: WIPO staff members are international civil servants subject to the authority of the Director General and may be assigned to any activities, office or duty station of the Organization. Accordingly, the selected candidate may be required to move from time to time to new functions and/or to another duty station.

Additional Information

* Initial period of one year, renewable, subject to funding and satisfactory performance. Fixed-term appointments granted for approved projects shall be for a period whose minimum and maximum duration are tied to the funding and terms of reference of the project. The overall duration of a fixed-term appointment for a project shall normally not exceed five years. Fixed-term appointments granted for approved projects shall not be converted to a permanent or continuing appointment.

Applications from qualified women as well as from qualified nationals of unrepresented Member States of WIPO and underrepresented geographical regions are encouraged. Please click on the following links for the list of unrepresented Member States and the list of underrepresented regions and the WIPO Member States in these regions.

The Organization reserves the right to make an appointment at a grade lower than that advertised.

Deadline: 16 August 2022

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